I have put a pertronix conversion on my Holley electronic-trigger type distributor, but it's the same principle on the points distributors. Several threads regarding these conversions exist here.
Pertronix has changed their setup throughout the history of their products, and here's what I understand.
- some of the pertronix conversions are simply plug-and-go. On mine, I just permanently removed the plastic dust cover beneath the rotor, slipped the "mag wheel" over the oem reluctor (or breaker points in your case) and the pickup "trigger" was mounted with one screw and a locating stud. That meant it had a Fixed position, And was not "air-gap adjustable." this is by far as simple as it gets. The box I have beside me is old and labeled "ignitor."
- some conversions feature a plastic spacer That must be installed between the pertronix "mag wheel" and the breaker points. This is imperative, as it lines up the integrated magnets with the pickup/trigger.
- some conversions feature only one locating screw for the pickup/trigger, and are packaged with a plastic or other non-magnetic thickness gauge, to be placed between pickup/trigger and magnet wheel. These are the kind that must be set to a specific air gap Per the thickness of your "tool."
on these boards, I have heard several variations on the setup, some which include the adjustable trigger, some which include the plastic spacer. Quality control on these units must not be as top-notch as possible, too, because the mounting plate my trigger was built onto was not set perpendicular to the inner face of the trigger. I removed it and gently coaxed the plate to a more appropriate angle, so now the trigger is nearly parallel to the outer surface of the magnet wheel.
While I am not positive, I am fairly convinced that these conversions all use the same (or at least a similar) factory-engineered air gap, and are just made with different distributor layouts in mind. It won't hurt a thing to measure your current air gap and loosen the screw that holds it in place to see if yours is the "adjustable" type or not. If so, the value for this gap has been listed somewhere before (I think in one of my threads...) and if not, it is then easy to eliminate the ignition (at the point of triggering anyway) as the source of your problems.
I read your thread about the blaster 2 coil, and I know that one of the most important aspects of the stock ignition setup is a coil that has a primary resistance of 1.3ohm to 1.8ohm. And that could have been remembered wrong, it is 01:14 locally. So just the wrong range of coil could be an issue...
Aaaand... Another ignition "upgrade" I have read about involves trying to take a high-performance ignition setup, and use the pertronix as a 'trigger' for the high-capacity (from now on, hc) ignition. I am well-read enough to know that it would take major machine work and much less rotating-mass to actually warrant an hc ignition on these industrial motors, so you May lean towards the idea of keeping it similar to stock components. Again just going by memory of past threads - if the ignition isn't properly hooked up to use the pertronix as a trigger for the hc ignition, it can provide a poor ignition source and perhaps even damage components (and the latter I'm not too clear on).
I do know that you can witness a spark in open air, but it May not act the same on an atomized fuel charge compressed to 8-9 times atmospheric pressure.
Best of luck finding out how to get this vehicle going, I know how fun it is to do the 3-second gas drip in the gullet just to end up with a cold hunk of iron. Hopefully some digging around these forums, as well as the experienced advice of our more antiqued members can get your combustion events in order.
